dc edition fall 2008 amber oliva’s exotic skip study … · abroad in the united states ......

ISSUE 3 FALL 2008

cOLLEGEMAGAZINE

DC EDITION

10

0%

FR

EE

IS YOUR ROOMMATE

A DRUG DEALER?las

vEgas HoLd on to your WALLet

COLLEGEMAGAZINE.COM

ambER oliva’s

exotic Study Abroad

skip Class with

o.a.R. exclusive Interview

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4 cOLLEGEMAGAZINE.cOM FALL 2008 Want more College Mag? Want to contribute? Go to collegemagazine.com to learn more...

2717

22 COLLEGE LIFE

9 CALENDAR Where will you be this fall?

10 WEIRD ROOMMATE HABITS

11 DEADLINE DREAD

14 MY ROOMMATE’S A DRUG DEALER

Find out what happens when your dorm room doubles as a shady business operation.

TRAVEL

17 COVER STORY ExOTIC STUDY ABROAD

Georgetown University senior Amber Oliva travels to Yemen and Egypt to redefine study abroad.

19 PLAN YOUR STUDY ABROAD

The ultimate checklist to get you started.

22 GIRLS GONE…GOOD? WARNING: Alternative Spring

Break could totally blow our rep.

30 STUDENT COLUMN Bonjour from Tulsa! A journey

abroad in the United States.

ENTERTAINMENT

12 LAS VEGAS Surviving the time of your life.

27 MAJORING IN O.A.R. Saxophonist Jerry DiPizzo on the band’s

college experience.

29 THE LOCAL SCRATCH The best local bands.

NIGHT LIFE

24 DUDE I’M SO HUNGOVER Check out our tried and true remedies.

24 HAIR OF THE DOG THAT BIT YOU

Does it work?

SPORTS

15 SHAPE UP YOUR SEMESTER

Tips and tricks for staying in shape on campus.

20 FAN IN ENEMY TERRITORY

Chest paint and profanities are welcome here!

21 SPORTS PRANKS

check out our exclusive O.A.R. concert video at collegemagazine.com

6 cOLLEGEMAGAZINE.cOM FALL 2008

Amanda NachmanPublisher

PublisherAMANDA NAChMAN

Creative DirectorLES KOLLEGIAN

EditorsMATThEw CASTNERBRIAN COGNATO ALISON SMITh

Copy EditorsJESSICA BROOKS BRIAN wRIGhT

Art DirectorGORDON TSUJI

Graphic DesignersCOLE MILLERJESSICA REChTADAM ROOP

Photography EditorRYDER hASKE

Advertising Sales InternPAUL GhYAD

Editorial InternROBERT KORNhAUSER

Web DesignerChAD COLLINS

Technical CoordinatorChRIS TESTA

WritersNICK GREEN, SCOTT KAPTUR, SARA OSIPOw, GENEvIEvE POIST, ALYSSA wALKER, ALYSSA wOOD

PhotographersKATE CASSALIA, ZAIN ShARIff, DAvID wEBSTER, PETER TZENG

Special Thank You ToMY fAMILY DENISE CARBERRYAShER EPSTEINANGIE GRANDIZIOSTEvEN hAwTOf KARI LEBOwITZShERRY MOELLERZOEY RAwLINS

cover Photo by Ryder Haske Junior Photojournalism George Washington University

Start traveling now—we’re giving away FREE Spring Break trips. Sign up online to win!

o my family, travel meant going to the beach on a tropical island. By the second grade I could talk on and on about Jamaica and what a mudslide tasted like. It wasn’t until

my sophomore year of college that I had a real desire for world travel. After hearing a friend in my Italian language class describe her experience abroad, I suddenly felt the need to discover Italy myself, beyond what our textbook could offer.

Abroad in Rome, I felt so independent. I cooked for myself, explored new cities and partied at the bars without having to be twenty-one. I used my Italian skills and became friends with a group of Italian college students on the train coming back from Perugia. I learned about Roman history through art, sculptures and ruins. And I quickly learned from my rookie mistakes, like when I planned a trip to Venice during carnevale. With little investigation, I booked a hostel that turned out to be a creepy campsite without hot water in the middle of freezing February. But every travel experience was a new adventure.

In this issue of college Magazine, we are all about new adventures and, of course, our trip to see O.A.R. in concert. Not only did this issue make me want to tape a poster of O.A.R.’s sax player, Jerry DiPizzo, to my wall, but it also made me want to travel again. Whether it’s to experience pure entertainment along the Las Vegas strip, connect with a unique culture in Yemen and Egypt like Amber Oliva, change the world through service, or simply think outside the box by seeing the U.S. in a new light, I hope our stories will inspire you to travel too. Isn’t it time to explore your college experience beyond the classroom?

ciao!

Left to Right: UMD Phi Psi, our most spirited Greeks. cM at O.A.R. Brian, Amanda & Ryder. Amanda & Jen at cM Party.

Top: Rome. Middle: Amsterdam. Bottom: Venice.

College Magazine wants to hear your stories. Submit your articles to our editor

Brian at [email protected].

College Magazine, LLC. * Win most spirited Greek house in our next issue by competing at our next release party!

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FALL 2008January February March April May June July August September October November December

7 BUDWEISER REGGAE SUMMER FEST @ RFK STADIUM

13 KENNEDY CENTER OPEN HOUSE ARTS FESTIVAL

14 ADAMS MORGAN DAY

25 - 28 KATHY GRIFFIN @ DAR CONSTITUTION HALL

25 - 28 ALExANDRIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

This will only be the festival’s second year, so look for lots of risky, controversial selections as it tries to make a name for itself. The festival has especially courted films about contemporary American politics, so brush up on your debate tactics before going.

28 - 30 VIRGINIA WINE FESTIVAL

1-7 DUKE ELLINGTON JAzz FESTIVAL

2 NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK @ THE VERIzON CENTER Yes, the New Kids on the Block are back on tour,

and whether it’s out of nostalgia, irony or just sheer confusion, you can check them out at the Verizon center this fall. New Edition opens. Seriously.

3 - 5 GEORGE LOPEz @ THE WARNER THEATER

4 DC JAM SESSION 2008 @ RFK STADIUM

Join D.c. United for their outrageous music festival. With party bands and DJs, open beer bar, food and tickets to the game, what more could you want? Highballevents.com

4 CAPITOL CITY BREWERY OKTOBERFEST

celebrate the greatest drinking holiday of the year with the district’s most famous brewery at its Virginia location. Thirty bucks opens the doors to this magical world of hoppy goodness, featuring 35 different breweries and 70-80 different varieties of beer — what Wonkaland looks like in our dreams.

11 WASHINGTON CAPITALS HOME OPENER VS. CHICAGO 7PM

14 - 15 DC GREEN FESTIVAL AT THE WASHINGTON CONVENTION CENTER

18 COLD WAR KIDS CONCERT @ 9:30 CLUB

24 ANNUAL HIGH HEEL DRAG RACE @ 17TH ST NEAR DUPONT CIRCLE

28 NIGHTMARE ON M STREET Register at Rumors (1900 M Street, NW) and bar

crawl in costume.

31 HALLOWEEN

SEPTEMBER OCTOBER

9FALL 2008 cOLLEGEMAGAZINE.cOM

FoR a quiCk bitE > good timEs EatERy >Spike, from Top Chef, has a new, reasonably-priced burger joint in Capitol Hill. Check it out this fall. goodstuffeatery.com

Golden Grossness: The roommate habit everyone knows about, but no one wants to talk about. check it out at collegemagazine.com

Think you’ve got it bad? Post your roommate horror stories to collegemagazine.com.

WEiRd RoommatE Habits


By SArA oSIpoW > SenIor > tHeAter

> unIverSIty oF MAryLAnd, CoLLege pArk

pHoto vIktorS dIndzAnS > SopHoMore

> george WASHIngton unIverSIty

“ My roommate decided once to build a ‘cove’ within our room so that she was completely boxed in on four sides by tall plywood. She would sit in the ‘cove’ with the lights out, so I never knew when she was in the room.”

Karen Mechanical Engineer

University of Maryland

“ I’m sitting in the common room of my apartment studying with my friend, Brian, when out of nowhere my roommate starts meowing. It wasn’t unusual for her to make random animal noises around the apart-ment but she was sitting right next to us. Then she said, “I think there is a cat in here.” Brian and I just looked at her, not really knowing how to respond.” Michelle

Senior, Exercise Science Education The Ohio State University

“ My roommate last year was a compulsive neat freak. I would wake up at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning to the sound of his vacuum cleaner. One time I walked in and he was mopping the ceiling. This was a dorm room by the way” Joe

Junior, Engineering University of Maryland

“ First year I made the mistake of rooming with my best friend from childhood. The kid ended up being really lame. He attached himself to me for that whole semester and thought all the friends I had made were his too. By spring I had a new roommate that wasn’t so socially inept.” chris

Junior, Pre-Med Stony Brook University, New York

“ My roommate had this goldfish that was over two-years-old that she was obsessed with. One weekend while she was away she told me to feed it and change its water. I did but the thing died anyway—it was a two-year-old goldfish! For the rest of the semes-ter she held a grudge against me.”

Michelle Sophomore, Psychology

University of Maryland

If there’s one universal experience

we all go through in college, it’s

cohabitating with a stranger, also

known as a roommate. Whether

your roommate is the best thing

since Facebook or not, we want

to hear about their weird habits

that drive you crazy. We could talk

about their redeeming qualities,

but who wants to hear about that?

pHoto ryder HASke


By nICk greene > SenIor > engLISH > george WASHIngton unIverSIty

pHoto kAte CASSALIA > SenIor > engLISH > unIverSIty oF MAryLAnd, CoLLege pArk

e’ve all been there—hunched over our computers at an ungodly hour wondering why we didn’t write that damn term

paper earlier. Even I, your eloquent wordsmith, am pounding out this story forty-five minutes from deadline, my only

bastion of hope the remaining Adderall I scored from a paroled arsonist in the stockroom of a nondescript shoe store. You need not follow my path into depravity and excess, however. By staying calm and following these easy steps,

completing the most daunting of term papers will be as easy as paying that lonely grad student to do it for you.

Immediately get an extension: Professors value a student who alerts them of any interfering engagements ahead of time. It is this weakness that will allow you to get an automatic leg up on your assignment. Wedding? Doctor’s appointment? caddying for Paul Reiser in a celebrity golf tournament? The sooner you tell them an excuse, the more likely they will believe it!

W

dEadlinE dREadTime Management Advice from Someone Who Can’t Even Tell Time

Wikipedia!: Type “test anxiety” into Wikipedia. There’s a huge list of ways to combat it, and I might throw some in this piece. There is plenty of stuff on Wikipedia, and it might all be true. Just cite Wikipedia and your professors will be impressed at your ability to manage time by condensing all your research.

Create your own facts: Futurist and inventor Buck-minster Fuller stated that he prepared for deadlines by working in fifteen-minute intervals. Is this true? Probably not, but teachers never read, let alone double-check, your bibliography. It’s like sitting through the credits at a movie—nobody does it!

Adhere to disegno: Through following this ancient technique of discov-ering the soul of man, Mi-chelangelo saw not a slab of marble, but David inside of it—he merely had to find his subject with his chisel (N.B.: This step only applicable for sculpture assignments of the male form).

Get drunk: Joyce, Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, Grisham—the greatest authors of the English lan-guage all had their crippling addiction to thank for their success. F. Scott Fitzgerald famously blacked out after drinking a kiddy pool full of peach schnapps. He awoke to find a syrupy puddle of vomit, bile and The Great Gatsby in front of him.

You could simply plan the paper immediately after it is assigned, work on it a little every day, and complete the

finishing touches on the eve of its deadline. You could also put on a beret, rely on solar power and use socialized

health care, because that would be just as un-American. The Constitution was written the night before it was due,

and it has gotten a pretty good grade. Many will argue that, in their haste, the drafters forgot to include some

minor details, like the abolishment of slavery, but give them a break—they didn’t have Wikipedia.


n the final approach to McCarran International, the neon oasis of Las Vegas washes over the pitch-black desert like an orange ocean. Extravagance passes my window in single file. There’s the Stratosphere tower, lit up like a 350-meter-tall candy cane. Then there are the peacock-fan colors of Bally’s and the simple elegance of the Wynn. For a moment, Las Vegas is a manageable size.

It’s easy to forget who you are in Las Vegas. The city doesn’t care about your past, only your future. And a lucky roll is always just around the corner.

Las Vegas is a state of mind. Las Vegas is biting off more than you can chew. Las Vegas is turning up your car stereo until the windows rattle. Las Vegas is staring at the sun, with binoculars.

Las Vegas is also a huge money-suck. It is a city built to separate you from your money. But with a little guidance, and a suitcase full of restraint, your wallet may survive the time of your life.

First of all, you need to time your trip to Las Vegas right. Since you’re probably not a high roller yet, off-season is your best bet. Think about heading there as a treat after finishing up your fall semester. Flight and hotel rates are considerably lower in mid-to-late December, but if you want a swanky Las Vegas New Year’s trip, be prepared to spend a little more.

Once you hit the ground, you’ll need somewhere to leave your stuff while you’re out all night. That’s right, a hotel room. Each hotel has its own character, but a few stand out for cost-conscious travel-ers, also known as students. The Stratosphere, the Luxor, and the Sahara are particularly thrifty. The gaming industry has taken a big hit over the last year, which means most hotels offer substantial incentives to get you into their beds. These deals change often, so you’ll need to do some home-work. With just a few clicks on Vegas.com, I pretty much found you a flight plus hotel package for less than $450. Beat that!

By MAttHeW CAStner > SenIor > FInAnCe & pSyCHoLogy > unIverSIty oF MAryLAnd, CoLLege pArk

las vEgasSurviving the Time of Your Life

Las Vegas

doesn’t care

about your past,

only your future.


EAT AT CAPrIoTTI’STo say capriotti’s makes the best sandwich I’ve ever had is a dis-service to the Vegas institution. The “Bobbie,” a Thanksgiving tribute of turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and—yes—mayo, was a revelation. Even their Italian sub, a sandwich-shop staple, blew my expectations out of the water. There are several locations around Vegas, but their closest spot to the strip is at 322 W. Sahara Ave., just half a block from the Sahara.

rIDE THE MonorAILWith the strip measuring four miles in length, transportation should not be an afterthought. The monorail is probably your best option, as cabs are expensive and Las Vegas Boule-vard is often snarled with traffic. The one-day pass is quite affordable at $9. The monorail also features—for better or worse—a nonstop narration of the sights of the strip. Though initially informative, a few days of monorail use may leave the narra-tion permanently imprinted on your psyche.

THE FounTAInS oF THE BELLAGIoThe dancing fountains outside the Bellagio are world-famous, and, most importantly, free. Watch as they rise out of the sprawling man-made lake in front of the Bellagio. But that’s not all. The Bellagio itself has perhaps the most glamorous atmosphere of all Vegas casinos. Even James Bond would probably dress up for this classy casino. The entrance is adorned with hundreds of glass flowers suspended from the ceiling. Straight ahead, you’ll find the conservatory, full of the Bellagio’s opulent seasonal gardens. There isn’t a single dull square foot here.

InSIDE THE VEnETIAnThere is no better example of seeing the world through Vegas-colored glasses than the Venetian. It recreates Venice, as though it were actually a mall. Despite the obvious kitsch factor, the place is truly en-chanting. It is one of several hotels that attempts to recreate another time or place, and is arguably the most successful. The cloud-painted ceilings play merciless tricks on your eyes, and the canals evoke centuries of Venetian history.

CIrquE Du SoLEILcirque du Soleil is the kind of stuff you see only in dreams. Sure, it might not make a lot of sense, but it will probably make you question your perception of reality. There are five different permanent shows in Las Vegas: O, Ka, Mystere, Zumanity and Love. The shows’ stages really set them apart. O’s stage submerges to turn into a massive pool, while Ka’s comes completely off the ground and can rotate 360 degrees. O and Ka are among the hardest tickets to get, and also among the most expensive. Translation: if you don’t have tickets before you hit the ground in Vegas, you won’t see either of these shows.

BLuE MAn GrouPThere is no other show like the Blue Man Group. Not in Vegas, not anywhere. Unless you’re at one of the dozen-or-so other Blue Man Group shows around the world. Their unique blend of music, thought-provoking voice-overs and gallons of paint is truly entertaining. Best of all, there’s actually a decent chance of getting steeply discounted tickets from the discount ticket broker Tix 4 Tonight (tix4tonight.com).

A WorD on BuFFETSThe legend of great food on the cheap at Vegas buffets is little more than a legend these days. Though low prices have remained, the food is terrible. Just terrible. Save yourself the disappointment and stomach-ache— eat elsewhere if at all possible.

If you want to go home with enough dough to buy breakfast the next day, do something other than gamble, and switching to slots doesn’t count. Here’s a rundown of what else there is to do in vegas, so you can stave off that developing gambling addiction just a little longer:

my RoommatE, tHE dRug dEalERBy AnonyMouS

pHoto ryder HASke

I was fast asleep when suddenly I was awoken by a pounding on the door. This was not a knock like, “Hey, what’s up?” or even, “I really need to talk to you.” This was a knock that said, “I am going to get in there, and when I do, it’s gonna suck to be you.” The person outside the door was screaming for my roommate. I looked over to him.

“Don’t open the door!” I asked who it was. “Just don’t open the door.”

I’ve never been so terrified in my life.

My roommate called the cops, but it took a while for them to get there. The knocking stopped—a ploy. We could still see the shadow of two feet under the door. He stood out there, stark still and silent. Then the knob started to slowly turn. He was trying to get in. A few minutes before the cops arrived, he left. Honestly, that night had been coming a long time.

When I first met my roommate freshman year, I was cautiously optimistic. He seemed nice enough. I thought I could chill with him, even after he starting talking about drugs the first week of class. I had never done any. The first time he had ever smoked weed was during senior week, and he began to smoke more regularly over the summer. When I met him he smoked twice a week.

Eventually, he was smoking almost every night out the window of the men’s bathroom. He would come back giggling and stay up all night playing online poker. He also experimented with other substances, like Adderall—to help him stay awake for gambling and more weed.

He and his buddies would even strangle each other to the point of passing out to get high off the oxygen deprivation. I’m not exactly sure when he started dealing.

He would get visits from strange girls, beautiful girls who he would bang that night then never see again. Most of them brought little gifts: cigarettes, teddy bears, etc. I thought he just had serious game.

During the third month of school I talked to the resident assistant (RA) and, without naming specifics, told him that I was very uncomfortable with my roommate. My RA told me my only recourse was to file a formal complaint, but my roommate was popular on the floor. I didn’t want to be the one getting him thrown out. Not to mention the paperwork; finals were coming up.

Then, one night, early in the spring semester, he and his buddies were in my room again, high, watching the movie Blow. Then, “Let’s get some coke!” I told him no way, no way are you doing coke in my room. He ran out of the room with his “connection” on the phone and didn’t come back that night.

One day I came back from class and he and his buddies were doing lines off one of his textbooks and asked if I wanted a hit. It was the first time I had ever seen cocaine in real life, and it was far from the last.

He continued to deal weed, coke too for all I know, even to strangers from the neighborhood. Many times during the next weeks I would corner him and demand that he stop doing drugs and stop dealing. The answer was always the same: “Yeah, man. I know. These drugs are really mess-ing up my life. I’m going to stop this week. I really need to stop.” And, within a few days, he’d be snorting in my room again. He never even made an effort. He just gave me the same speech to get me off his back, and it worked.

Honestly, he had a good racket, getting laid by a different beautiful girl every night, money rolling in. He didn’t even have to go to class because he had ringers going and tak-ing his tests for him in exchange for drugs. But the low point came the night of the knocking on our door.

Days after the incident, the RA pulled me aside. He told me he knew what was going on in our room. He told me my roommate was smoking out of the floor’s bathroom window. He had strangers coming to our room at all hours. He told me that it was only a matter of time before

my roommate got busted, and he told me if my room-mate went down and I knew about his activities and hadn’t reported them, I’d be expelled with him and probably subject to legal action.

Then I was approached by the cops, who told me the same thing. But they also told me they wanted to catch him in the act. And they wanted me to be the rat.

I didn’t want to be a snitch. Not because of some “Stop Snitching” code, but because I knew what would happen to me. I would be completely ostracized from the campus

“I am going to get in there, and when I do, it’s gonna suck to be you.”


The sale of illicit substances on college campuses nation-wide is more prevalent than you might think. That point was made shockingly clear by the May bust of a massive drug ring at San Diego State University (SDSU). Ninety-six people, including seventy-five students, were arrested in the largest campus drug bust in U.S. history. While this was the largest bust, the raid on SDSU was far from an isolated incident. To read more about college drug busts, visit collegemagazine.com.

Amount of full time college students who binge drink and/or abuse prescription and illegal drugs*

12,756 Amount of drug arrests on college campuses in 2003**

310,000 Amount of students who use marijuana daily. This rate has more than doubled

between 1993 and 2005, although rates of drinking and bingeing remained constant.*

636,000 Amount of students who use harder drugs like cocaine and heroin, which

rose 52% over the same period*

By SCott kAptur > SenIor > JournALISM


COLLEGE DRUG BUSTS

CAMPUS DRUG RELATED STATS

49%

check out Stickk.com and put a fitness contract out on yourself. Put some money on it or have your friends act as referees.

community, hated in the entire building. And my room-mate might send someone after me.

But the cops were persistent, and eventually wore me down. We worked out this elaborate plot, seemingly straight from the movies. When a deal went down in the room I’d call the cops on speed dial and hang up. Minutes later, cops would burst into the room and bust both of us. I would be thrown into a cop car, taken to jail and fill out paper work. I would spend the night in jail, just enough time to convince my roommate and the other residents that I wasn’t in on it. Then they’d slip me out the back door and home.

I sat through several deals, but was too scared to make that call. Once, I had my finger on the button, but the buyer left too quickly. And I never did get the chance. His parents somehow caught wind of his addiction and pulled him out of housing to get him into rehab.

He had put me through hell my freshman year. He went from a casual user, to a dealer, to a completely dependent addict and near convict in less than a year. And I had front row seats to the whole episode. D.A.R.E. can never give you an education like that.

My ex-roommate called me a few months ago. Of course I never returned it. But I’ve heard he’s dropped out of school to play cards in Baltimore.

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By ALySSA Wood > JunIor > engLISH > george WASHIngton unIverSIty

pHotoS ryder HASke

With sitting all day in class and quick access to late-night noxious snacks, it’s no wonder your Freshman Fifteen may spill over into the next three years. But there are some simple ways to stay fit on campus.

The gym is the most obvious start. “The whole process is very user-friendly and I think it becomes trendy to go to the gym, see and be seen,” says christina Russo, an administrator with the office of campus recreation at George Washington University. Russo suggests a basic workout plan of three days of cardio and two days of resis-tance training per week.

Motivation, though, is often the greatest obstacle. catholic University junior chelsea Sarle says she’ll wear workout clothes to class to force herself to exercise. She also varies her routine. “Besides working out at the fitness center, I’ll go to the pool and swim laps, or I’ll jump rope or go to the dance studio,” Sarle says.

changes like these will save you from getting bored with your fitness routine. Other ways to keep things fresh include switching up your workout playlist, the order of your workout, or even your workout friend.

It’s also important that your eating habits reflect your desire for a healthy semester. Getting enough protein is key to a college diet, since eating times may be limited. Snacks like granola, eggs, nuts or peanut butter will keep you full until your next meal.

“My personal secret to staying healthy is drinking nothing but water during the week,” says Notre Dame junior Edwin Wilbert. “It flushes out your system, makes your skin healthier, and costs nothing.”

For additional daily fitness boosts, workout in your dorm room by taking advantage of hand weights; they’re cheap and use-ful for squats, lunges, and arm/back workouts.

And if working out in groups help keep you motivated, think about joining an intramural sports team. George Washington University senior christopher Urteaga plays intramural soccer. “It is a way to help me get a sufficient amount of cardio to complement my weight-lifting regimen,” he says. christopher adds that intramurals allow students to warm up together, then compete intensely, possibly getting a more effective car-dio workout than one might during a solo workout at the gym.

The hardest part is always sticking to your goals. So, however you choose to workout this semester, structure your fitness goals to keep you fit and motivated in a way that won’t take over your life.

sHapE up youR sEmEstER

ambER oliva tops youR list

By AMAndA nACHMAn pHotoS ryder HASke

abRoad in yEmEn and Egypt

Water’s flooding in, wind’s gaining speed

and everything’s getting soaked. Amber

Oliva, a senior at Georgetown Univer-

sity, is camping in the mountains outside

Sana’a, Yemen, when she realizes her tent

is directly in a water channel above a dam.

welcome to her semester abroad.

Yemen and Egypt probably aren’t at the

top of your travel wish list—they’re not at

the top of the State Department’s either.

In fact, most students would probably ad-

mit they would be afraid to travel to these

countries. Both have strong anti-American

sentiments and have histories of well-

known terrorist attacks.

cont’d

18 cOLLEGEMAGAZINE.cOM FALL 200818 cOLLEGEMAGAZINE.cOM FALL 2008

But one student with a passion for the study of the Islamic world placed Yemen and Egypt at the very top of her desired destinations queue. As a regional and comparative studies major, Amber Oliva had learned the Arabic language, the history, and the culture in class; by her ju-nior year, she was ready to experience it herself. For this Alaskan native, flying to Yemen meant breaking in her passport for the first time.

Cue the Culture ShockIn Yemen, public restrooms are BYOTP – Bring Your Own Toilet Paper. Restaurants are separat-ed into different sections for men and women, and the interactions between the sexes aren’t at all like they are in America. Oliva worried that her friendly nature would be perceived as flirty. “Do I make eye contact, do I smile, do I act friendly?” Oliva said she asked herself. “Should I be talking to my male profes-sor outside of class?”

And with the Yemeni dress code of a long black dress (an abaya), a face-covering veil (a niqab) and a headscarf (a hijab), Oliva constantly wondered if she was dressed conservatively enough. “I had conserva-tive clothes to wear, but it still felt a little weird,” she said. “The boys could wear what they would regularly wear, their jeans and their t-shirts,” but it was clear that the women couldn’t.

The headscarf proved es-pecially confusing; every-one around her gave conflicting messages about wearing it or not. When she and her room-mate went to w i thd raw m o n e y

from a bank, her roommate, who had a scarf wrapped around her head, said to Oliva, “Are you trying to make a statement? You’re not cov-ering your hair.” But while some of her friends and professors said that it was offensive to show her blonde hair, others said that donning the headscarf would seem like she was mocking the Yemeni custom. “It was just all these new sensations coming at me,” Oliva said.

Women’s partiesAlthough her first taste of Yemen was over-whelming, Oliva eventually adjusted to life abroad. She bought an abaya to throw over her regular clothing and decided to wear the head-scarf while out at night. She became more com-fortable with exploring the city and on some days after class in Yemen, Oliva and her friends would go to teashops and pay a premium to sit on the roof for a view of the city.

Her more unusual experiences there involved camping in the mountains, which ended with Oliva and her friends packing up their tent and

hitching a ride to a hotel to escape from the flood. She also attended an exclusive

women’s party where the baltos were shed in exchange for colorful clothes.

A relative of a Yemeni professor at her school was hosting the party

for a bride to be and invited the female students.

“At the women’s party, the women are chew-

ing Qat, smoking shisha, dressed

up, and they’ve

got a lot of makeup on,” Oliva said. Shisha is flavored tobacco and Qat, which is actually il-legal in the States, is a plant that’s chewed into a ball and, according to Oliva’s European friend who tried it, is roughly equivalent to downing a Red Bull. “It doesn’t smell good.”

theater projects and InternshipsAfter five weeks in Yemen, Oliva joined around thirty-five other students from her college at the American University of Cairo, part of a Georgetown exchange program. Although it was tempting to hang out with her American friends, she tried to meet new people through classes and travel. She worked with a group of Egyptian students on a performance theater project. It was very informal—four students meeting in a classroom for a couple hours at a time.

“Sometimes when the student director was ex-plaining things to us, she’d say it in Arabic. It was cool; I was like, ‘Yea I get this,’” Oliva said. Spending this time with the Egyptian students outside of class allowed her to cross the cultural divide and become friends. “They have a differ-ent experience from growing up in Egypt, but they’re my peers.”

An internship with the American Embassy in Cairo also gave her an opportunity to connect with the Egyptian people. One Egyptian wom-an who worked at the Embassy was comfort-able enough with Oliva to speak to her about her thoughts on religion. Her message was sim-ply that “we’re all praying to the same God” and “it isn’t right to judge.” This stayed with Oliva. “I think a lot of people misunderstand the Arabic-speaking world,” she said.

prayerOn the first Friday of Ramadan, Oliva and her friends took a day trip to Alexandria. Right on the water there was this “large stone cita-

“I felt

out of place, the

only girl that I could see in the

area. It’s not that I felt in danger, it’s just that I

felt a little bit awkward.”

pitch-black night and couldn’t be slowed down. “It was exhilarating, to gallop on a horse—I had always wanted to gallop on a horse like that.”

Snorkeling and the Black & White desertOne weekend, Oliva traveled to a beach along the Red Sea to go snorkeling. They stayed in little rooms right near the water. “It’s absolutely amazing. You know the Discovery Channel with the fish, just imagine seeing that in per-son. Bright orange and little fish, green coral, orange coral...”

For the Eid holiday, which marks the end of Ra-madan, the students had a few days off school. Oliva and a large group of friends ventured to the Black and White Desert in two Jeeps. When one would get stuck in the sand, every-one would get out and push it and then jump back in.

That night, they camped out in the desert and cooked dinner. The students danced around the campfire and Oliva’s Egyptian friend, a drummer, taught her a common beat in Egyp-tian music. Oliva said, “I’ve never seen so many stars in the sky in my life. If you watched long enough, you would see a shooting star.”

“Spending the night in the desert—that’s ba-dass. Being from Alaska, I thought we had stars in the sky, but being there, there were so many... When my Egyptian friend was teaching me the drums, I was thinking, ‘Where else would I learn this? This is so cool. I’m sitting in the desert, how cool is this?”


del thing…big and beautiful.” They sat on the citadel and watched the waves. During her trip, Oliva recalled waiting as one of her Egyptian friends went to go pray.

Oliva had taken a course on Islamic religion at Georgetown University. “I liked the opportunity to see the things I had read about. I tried to be very observant, really take it in, and get an idea of the place I was at,” Oliva said. She explained how even at the gym at the American University of Cairo, prayer rugs were placed in the locker room for girls to pray. On the street, she would sometimes see a soldier or guard take his shoes off, move out of the way and pray. “It’s not like ‘excuse me, I need to go pray.’”

Awkward Stares & Midnight Horseback ridesCompared to Sana’a, Cairo was liberal, but even so, Oliva still felt that she stood out, es-pecially as a woman. Once she and her male friend were outside by a shisha café when he walked away to talk on the phone. Oliva was left standing alone in front of the café filled with only Egyptian men smoking. “I felt out of place, the only girl that I could see in the area. It’s not that I felt in danger, it’s just that I felt a little bit awkward,” said Oliva. “My friend came back and I was like ‘Don’t do that to me.’”

At night, a lot of students would frequent shisha bars, but Oliva stuck to other plans, usually heading to ice cream outings or salsa dancing. Her Egyptian friends planned a midnight horse-back ride around the pyramids one night. Oliva explained how when she sat on her horse, the person in charge suddenly yelled “Yalla!” (simi-lar to “Come on!”). The horse shot off into the

Here’s our checklist to help you get started:

[ ] Find resources on campus Visit your sudy abroad office to research program offerings and check out opportunities through other schools too.

[ ] Talk to the veteransGet in touch with students who have experi-enced your specific program. Ask them about the housing, the culture, and the challenges.

[ ] research your programFind out if there’s a support system available. It’s helpful to have university aid abroad to assist with class registration, housing and adjustment to living in a different country.

[ ] Get classes approvedMeet with your advisor to discus credits for your major. This can often be a harrowing pro-cess, so act early to get your classes approved.

[ ] Prepare travel documentsDo you need a passport, visa, or vaccine injections for your destination? These can take considerable time to handle, so work on your travel requirements at least two months before hand.

[ ] Start saving Though it may not be fun, start considering your finances. Talk to your parents about who’s paying for what. Grab a summer job and start saving up for flights and hostels!

By ALySSA Wood

Want to Study Abroad?

Hometown: Eagle River, Alaska

School: Georgetown University

Major: Regional and Comparative Studies in the School of Foreign Service

Favorite Sport: Rock-climbing

Favorite Book: Ender’s Game

Campus Involvement: Georgetown University’s Lecture Fund and Arab Cultural Festival Harakat

PROfILE AMBer oLIvA

ABroAd pHotoS > AMBer oLIvA


By BrIAn CognAto > SenIor > engLISH > unIverSIty oF MAryLAnd, CoLLege pArk

pHoto zAIn SHArIFF > SenIor > CeLL BIoLogy & MoLeCuLAr genetICS > unIverSIty oF MAryLAnd, CoLLege pArk

A select few will risk as much as their on-field heroes though, journeying into enemy territory and putting their own well-being on the line right alongside their players’. Think of it as the fan’s crossing route: you’re exposed, both you and your opponent know it, and if you don’t keep your head on a swivel, you might get hurt.

But the game’s always changing, and years of tactical trial-and-error have yielded at least three keys to penetrating enemy lines so that you can support your team, eviscerate your opponent’s self-esteem and get back home in one piece.

We fans ask for nothing less than complete sacrifice from our players, a willingness to risk life and limb in the line of duty — usually while safely on the sidelines, surrounded by thousands of our closest friends.

Hit Him Before He Hits YouChuck Capasso, a senior at the University of Pittsburgh, once made the mistake of nonchalantly strolling over to talk to a friend in the student section at a game hosted by Big East rival Villanova. “I was just sitting there talking and then I noticed everyone around me was yelling,” he says. “Literally the entire student section was booing me.” Pull the same act in Ohio State’s Horseshoe or Clemson’s Death Valley and you might have more than a few unkind words to worry about.

Capasso now advocates what could be called the Jer-emy Shockey School of fandom: if you’re going over the middle, go hard and go aggressively. Hit somebody. “You should be as loud and obnoxious as you can,” he says. “I mean, why else are you there?” It’s an approach heavy on profanity, chest paint, and profanities painted on your chest. Regional stereotypes are go-to maneuvers (Pity West Virginia), as are national controversies (They don’t even have to be true ones; just ask Duke’s lacrosse team). In the Shockey school of fandom, if you haven’t earned at least one “Asshole” chant, you probably aren’t doing your job.

Fan in EnEmy tERRitoRy

By ALySSA WALker > JunIor > JournALISM > toWSon unIverSIty

A really good prank brings not just laughter, but a visceral satisfaction and a kind of awe that does

not fade with time nor diminish with retelling.

nEIL STEInBErG If At All Possible, Involve a cow

Pick your SpotsOthers advocate a subtler approach. Bob Reish, a senior at the University of Notre Dame, has been to games at Purdue, Michigan and Michigan State, even a Thanksgiving matchup with USC. “I’m not the biggest guy in the world,” says Reish, “so depend-ing on how things are going, sometimes I try to keep a low profile.”

The Hines Ward approach: don’t play angry, play smart. Wait for your opportunity. Says Reish, “When we’re a good team, we flash it like crazy. If you get killed there isn’t much you can do.” It’s an approach that also emphasizes controlled pregaming and tail-gating, something even Capasso sees the value in: “If people see you walking around obviously drunk, they might decide to kick your ass just because they can.”

Above All Else, WinCapasso remembers one particularly sweet victory against Duke at Madison Square Garden, far from Tobacco Road but covered in white and blue thanks to Duke’s national following and well-heeled alumni. After trailing for most of the game, the Panthers upset the Blue Devils 65-64 on a three pointer by Brooklyn-native Levance Fields with 4.7 seconds left to play. “You had about 30 percent of the place going nuts and the other 70 percent dead silent,” Capasso re-calls. “To win like that and own an arena like that in the end, it was amazing. There’s nothing like it.”

Fan in EnEmy tERRitoRy MIT and calTech can both realistically claim the title of “college’s greatest pranksters,” and they’ve sparred more than once over which school can most thoroughly embarrass the other. In 2006, MIT flew to Pasadena, stole calTech’s 111-year-old cannon and shipped it back to Boston. The group of MIT students disguised themselves as a moving company and put the cannon in the back of a truck to drive home. This was in retaliation for a 2005 calTech attack, when hundreds of freshmen arriving on MIT’s campus were handed shirts saying “MIT” on the front — and “...Because not everyone can go to calTech” on the back.

Inspired by the Great Rose Bowl Hoax (see below), two Yale students created the “Harvard Pep Squad.” comprised completely of other Yale students, the squad handed out white and crimson placards to about 1,800 Harvard alumni, faculty and students, claiming that when lifted, they would read “GO HARVARD.” They actually read “WE SUcK.” The prank, executed in Boston, drew enormous national and international media attention, including a spot on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

For the halftime show of a 1982 game between Yale and Harvard, a group of students planted and inflated a talcum-covered weather balloon on the 46-yard line, letting it grow to about a six-foot diameter before it exploded, sending massive amounts of the white powder everywhere. The balloon had only three letters — MIT. Immediately following the game, then-MIT president Paul Gray wrote his Harvard colleague for the balloon back to put it on display.

calTech’s football team, called the worst of all-time, was disbanded in 1993, but its pranks remain legendary. In 1961, Washington was set to play Minnesota in the annual Rose Bowl game, probably the most watched and anticipated college game of the year. calTech, fed up with other teams basking in the glory of its home stadium, duped a cheerleader into spilling all the details of Washington’s planned halftime spectacle, an elaborately choreographed placard routine. One day, one minor break-in and 2,232 photocopies later, oblivious Washington fans proudly displayed calTech’s beaver mascot, “Washington” spelled backwards and, of course, “cALTEcH,” for the whole country to see.

CollEgE mag’s spoRts pRanks

Hall oF FamE

revenge of the nerds (2006)

Harvard Gets Crimson in the Face (2004)

Poisoned Ivy? (1982)

The Great rose Bowl Hoax (1961)



Warning: Alternative Spring Break Could Blow Your Rep By BrIAn CognAto > SenIor > engLISH > unIverSIty oF MAryLAnd, CoLLege pArk pHoto ryder HASke

giRls gonE… good?

e’re all frauds, college students. We pretend, in our stories and in our Facebook pictures, to be mindless party animals, unholy love children of

Tara Reid and Bluto Blutarsky. Sometimes, though, we actually care. Witness alternative spring break.

An “alternative” spring break, or ASB, is one devoted to something other than general debauchery, usually community service. Schools sponsor these trips in every season, but they’re most popular in the spring, possibly as a direct reaction to Girls Gone Wild.

You can find ASB programs at any area school. For example, the University of Maryland sent more than 200 students on thirteen different trips in 2008. In recent years, ASBers have done everything from spending nights sleeping on D.C. city buses to learn about the homeless to helping gather harvests in the African rainforest. Even MTV, the world’s lead-ing purveyor of spring break hedonism, hosts a web site with ASB resources.

James Madison University offers a whopping twenty-five different trips, and still has to ra-tion out spots with a lottery. Heather Stinson, a senior who first took an alternative break to Mississippi in 2006, was so impressed with the experience that she and her friends actually organized their own ASB in 2008, helping at various organizations near Stinson’s hometown of Annapolis, Maryland.

“We did it ourselves because we didn’t want to take opportunities away from others at JMU, and we wanted to do [a project] with our friends and incorporate our faith into it,” says Stinson, a non-denominational Christian.

Over the course of a week, the group worked with several organizations, including Habitat for Humanity in Baltimore and The Lighthouse Shelter in Annapolis, an emergency sanctuary for the homeless that offers beds, meals, show-ers and more.

“We painted, scraped, hauled, built, and some guys helped haul a washer through a roof—[it was] really cool,” Stinson explains. “A lot of us are music majors, so we visited a number of shut-ins and nursing homes and one hospital and played music for people.”

American University seniors and twins Sarah and Rachel Beistel went farther afield for their first alternative break—to Guatemala in March 2006—but their program was just as gritty. The Beistel’s woke at 6 a.m. most mornings, hiked an hour up a mountain and picked coffee beans for the rest of the day. A battle for campus retail space

W


We painted, scraped, hauled, built, and some guys helped haul a washer through a roof—really cool.

between Starbucks and Pura Vida, a fair-trade-only coffee organization operated for chari-table benefit, inspired them to volunteer.

“Every time I go to the store and I buy a Pura Vida coffee, I know where this money is going,” explains Sarah. “I met these people, saw their schools, hit a volleyball on the beach with their children.” They decided, of their own free will, to go back and do it all again a year later.

“Our friends [who] did the typical thing were jealous, like they wished they had done it,” she continues. “How often can you drink on the beach before it gets old?”

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Left Allison Benkovic, stands before hordes of chinese tallow, an invasive species of plant that has taken over huge potions of the wetlands in New Orleans after Hurricane Katerina. Nearly 100 GW students spent time helping restore the natural environment and rebuild homes in March 2008. Right The Beistle’s Volunteer Group in Santa Anita Guatemala. Photo by Rachel and Sarah Beistle.

American university: The Thailand-Burma BorderStudents confronted one of the world’s worst remaining bad-guy regimes, meeting with activists and organizers trying to promote peace, human rights and democracy in Burma. Other noteworthy sights included breathtaking landscapes, ancient Buddhist temples and, if the rumors are true, John Rambo.

Catholic university(CuA): Kingston, JamaicaStudents visited a Jamaica far different from the tourist haven a typical spring-breaker would see, pitching in at St. Patrick’s Foundation, which caters to the poverty-racked city’s children and elderly. cUA students can at least find comfort in the fact that even Kingston, Jamaica might be safer than Rhode Island Ave. after midnight.

DC Alternative Spring BreaksIf you’re interested in an alternative break, contact your school’s community service office, and remem-ber, you don’t have to wait until spring. Here are just a handful of places students went in 2008.

Georgetown university: El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, MexicoStudents experienced all parts of the border experience, from speaking to immigration guards to subsisting on the simple beans-and-rice diet of migrant workers, all while staying in Annunciation House, a safe haven for immigrants and refugees in the Mexican-American borderlands. Like a normal spring break, there was plenty of sand and sun. Water? That’s for wussies.

George Washington university: new orleans, LouisianaStudents visited what has become the most popular — but possibly also still the most deserving — volunteer location in the United States, aiding hurricane relief efforts at Habitat-for-Humanity-affiliate camp Hope. What it lacks in originality, it makes up for in gumbo.

university of Maryland: Boston, MassachusettsStudents helped expose underprivileged local children to the arts by volunteering with theaters, choirs and other cultural sites. Sure, it doesn’t have the shock value of Burma, but we all know the true sacrifice it takes to tolerate that accent for a whole freakin’ week.

But it isn’t only comments like these that threaten to make college students look respectable. Rachel can rattle off a terrifying array of pro-fair-trade information, mentioning, among other things, that buying more fair-trade coffee (coffee grown sustainably and sold at a price that guarantees farmers living wages) would cost Starbucks only about an extra $0.20 per pound, compared to their profits of nearly $9.00 per pound. The Beistels agreed to meet me at a Starbucks for an interview on one condition: I buy fair-trade coffee.

Unlike the majority of ASB programs, the twins’ trip allowed a little bit of typical spring break conduct; alcohol consumption was not banned completely. For some schools, how-ever, an alcohol ban is one of the major tenets of ASBs: it allows the students to experi-ence a true “alternative” to a typically booze-filled collegiate spring break. For others it’s only an enabling factor— Break Away’s 2008 Program of the Year at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, states that it bans alcohol to create “a more memorable and pro-ductive trip,” a point that’s hard to argue. Most ASBers don’t mind the sacrifice anyway.

Says University of Maryland senior Meaghan Fortune, who took an anti-poverty ASB to Chicago in 2007, “We were so busy all of the time with projects or outings that [drinking] didn’t cross my mind. And we had fun just walking around the city and going to a jazz club, blues club, and even had a scavenger hunt one night.”

Maybe more than proving us frauds, ASB just shows that college students have the capac-ity for both reckless self-destruction and reckless idealism. We might have to work extra hard during the semester to keep our reps up, but that’s okay. To quote no less an author-ity than Senator Blutarsky himself, “When the going gets tough…”

dudE, i’m so HungovERTried and True Remedies

HaiR oF tHE dog tHat bit you:Does it Work?

By SArA oSIpoW > SenIor > tHeAter > unIverSIty oF MAryLAnd, CoLLege pArk

BY The College Magazine Mom

To avoid all the other skanks and “players” in line with V8 and B vitamins at the closest grocery store, try to remember to count your drinks the next time you’re out. This way you’ll forgo leaving with that fratty guy who turns out to be not quite as charming as he seemed when you were six drinks in, your roommate won’t have to pry off your gooey bar shoes once you’ve passed out, and you’ll be up for tailgating bright and early.

Simply put, “hair of the dog” is the widespread belief that the best way to cure a hangover is to drink more alcohol. The term comes from an old wives’ tale about curing were-wolf bites, and we’re sorry to say that the modern “hair of the dog” is a fairytale too—mostly.

Hangover prescriptions tend to call for stiff, salty, spicy, pungent mixes— things you would never touch if you weren’t still suffering from the effects of alcohol, like the Prairie Oyster (2 oz. vodka, 1 whole egg, 3 oz. tomato juice, and dashes of bitters, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco).

Exact recipes abound, of course, as do theories about why they work, but none really pan out. The idea that they combat “alcohol withdrawal” seems to be completely wrong, as no individual night of drinking, no matter how many car Bombs they involve, can create a real physical dependency. One reputable theory asserts more alcohol can slow your liver’s ability to process all the wonderful little toxins that create a hangover — but that ignores the obvious fact that you’re only delaying the inevitable.

Still, drinks like the Bloody Mary can at least blunt a hangover’s effects. Their potency and strange-ness can distract your stomach from a headache, and all those vitamins in the tomato juice can’t hurt. In the end, you’re probably better off sticking to our tips from Sara. Drinking in the morning is still drinking in the morning.

a WoRd oF adviCE

Water, Water, WaterDon’t settle for that warm Poland Spring bottle that’s been sitting on your floor since you moved in. Keep a water bottle in your mini-fridge—your hangover will be begging for a sip of cold nontoxic fluid. Soda, coffee, and more alcohol are not water. After drinking some water, take a shower in it! You’ll probably realize how gross you got the night before. Drinking water and taking a shower will physically and mentally cleanse you.

Eat SomethingNo, we’re not talking about greasy pizza. Apples, bananas, honey, chicken soup, and tomato juice are among the tried and true remedies. Some students crave certain foods during their hangovers that they wouldn’t normally eat. My personal staple is tuna mixed with cottage cheese. Please, hold your judgment.

Pop Some PillsPass on E and roll on B instead! B-vitamins are the best for helping your body metabolize alcohol. If you’re too impaired to take some before you go to bed, take one as soon as you wake up. And, instead of downing a handful of aspirin, which can actually intensify the effects of alcohol, try some Alka-Seltzer to settle your stomach and fight your headache.

ExerciseEven if it’s the last thing you feel like doing, exercise will help cure your body of its hangover by getting rid of those nasty toxins. Note that neither pre-sex dancing nor post-dancing sex count as exercise.

Got any better ideas? Send us your remedy at collegemagazine.com.

It starts with body-consuming nausea. Lying down makes you dizzy,

and forget about standing up. Yeah, it’s another hangover. You’re

probably hung-over right now. And if you’re not, don’t be fooled

— you are drunk. Luckily, you can fight your hangovers, just like you

fought your way to the bar in the first place.

Get more MoM advice at collegemagazine.com24 cOLLEGEMAGAZINE.cOM FALL 2008

Mom

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Get more MoM advice at collegemagazine.com

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Shortly before O.A.R. (Of A Revolution) passed through Merriweather Post Pavilion this summer, touring in sup-port of their new album All Sides, College Magazine was lucky enough to chat with their saxophonist and some-times-guitarist, Jerry DePizzo (the hottest member, our publisher Amanda tells us).

o.a.R.majoRing in

By BrIAn CognAto > SenIor > engLISH


pHotoS ryder HASke

Now, we all know the alterna-tive rock-reggae band’s party-friendly rep, right up there with the Dave Matthews Band, Phish and Dispatch, so you might be surprised to find out that the mem-bers of O.A.R. were all business back in their uni-versity days. Not that that meant going to class, says DePizzo, who joined the Rockville, Md., natives on the campus of Ohio State in 2000.

Best to let him explain.>>>>>>>>>>>


CM: So tell us a little bit about what college was like for you.

Jd: Well, I always saw myself as a musician. College and the classroom, that wasn’t the primary reason I was

there. Looking back, I do wish I had taken mu-sic, music comp., music theory, classes like that, but I took business classes instead. But now I can manage a lot [for the band]. Each of us is a project manager for one aspect of what we do…I handle production management issues and crew-related issues backstage.

CM: When you first joined OAR, could you fore-see the success you have today?

Jd: Everyone was pretty focused and on the same page. We all had the same goals and ideas. I played in a bunch of bands in college, but there was something special about O.A.R. Never once did I not have a packed house for an O.A.R. show—not once. It didn’t matter if we played at a frat party or a bar with 50 people or something bigger. There were always people who seemed to gravitate toward what we do. We had “it,” whatever “it” is, and we took that with a certain level of pride. We weren’t the type to party the opportunity away.

Q:A:

CM: What were O.A.R’s first shows at OSU like?

Jd: People say O.A.R.’s a “frat band.” I hate that term. I really do. I don’t know why, I just can’t stand it. It’s like they use it in a derogatory way, as if we could only entertain people that were hammered. Granted, people enjoy themselves when we play, but we also touch people in a very personal way. We played everything and anything we could. We pride ourselves on that a lot.

CM: Is there a certain kind of crowd that you enjoy or a certain place you like playing?

Jd: With the kind of music that we play, 16-22 year-olds, that’s where the core of our audience is. I think music is as important [then] as it’s ever going to be in your life...When you put that Bob Marley poster up in college on your wall, that’s a part of who you are. That’s what defines you. That’s your badge of honor. As you get older, you get a job, you get a family. Music can take a back seat to things, it does. I love that our audi-ence is really rooted, and will always be rooted, in the people exiting high school and coming into college.

CM: So what did you listen to in college?

Jd: The Allman Brothers. I listened to more All-

man Brothers than anyone else. And of course reggae music. I think they issue you reggae CDs as you walk in. They have somebody at the gates with Bob Marley, Roots Volume 1. Obviously that translates into what we play now.

CM: Did you have one class or professor that really influenced you?

Jd: No, there really wasn’t. It’s not something I’m proud of. I count that as one of my failures, that I didn’t get a college degree. I didn’t take it seriously. I majored in O.A.R. and minored in waiting tables…

I failed Accounting like three times. I just didn’t get it. I probably should have bought the book; if I had bought the book, it probably would have helped.

CM: How did you decide it was really time to pursue O.A.R., that that was where your future was?

Jd: Well, we gave it four years. Mark [Roberge, the songwriter and lead singer] and Chris [Culos, the drummer] graduated; kudos to them. We had four years to finish school, and after that we said [we could either] not do this, which obvi-ously no one chose, or we could go on the road and give this thing a shot.

“People say O.A.R.’s a ‘frat band.’ I hate that term. I really do.”

Even though they picked up Jerry at oSu, o.A.r. may be the quintessential example of a local band that has made it happen– scrapping their way from rockville, Md., to the top of the pops on the strength of relentless touring and a grassroots following. Whether they’re spin-ning hot tunes at the local club or just rockin’ out on the kazoo (yes, you read that right), make sure you catch these bands before they hit road and just maybe hit it big.

FivEsLooking for someone other than your ipod to dJ your party? Comprised of five kids who either perform individually or combine in different ways to form three differ-ent acts (Mystery date, Schonkinder, and decibelle), Fives adds a variety of dance beats—house music, electronica, remixes, maybe disco, almost certainly more math than you expected—to any party. All five dJs spin tunes on their own radio shows for the university of Maryland’s WMuC 88.1 FM, in addition to mixing at their gigs. Fives performs, in all its permutations, at several locations in the d.C. area, and is a favorite of college formals and parties. to read more about Fives’ leading diva, decibelle, go to collegemagazine.com.

fiveskids.com

baCk to savE tHE univERsEAiming to combine everything from alternative rock to funk and, according to some band members, Muppet-movie soundtracks, Back to Save the universe is surely a unique musical experience. the four-member band seeks to emulate acts like they Might Be giants and Ben Folds, but with an added flare that gravitates more towards jazz and funk. At shows, crowd members are likely to get up and dance and, if not, will no doubt be encouraged or even required, to do so. With tons of local perfor-mances under their belt and a recently released ep, Back to Save the universe looks like it’s here for good.

myspace.com/btsturock or backtosavetheuniverse.com

tHE lampsHadEsHailing from the unlikely music hotspot that is rural pennsylvania, the Lampshades made their entrance onto the d.C. scene last fall, when frontman Jaren Love transferred to the university of Maryland. Since then, the powerpop quartet has expanded their performing horizons beyond the district, including a summer tour through the Midwest. With influences ranging from the Beach Boys to the pixies, the Lampshades couple upbeat rhythms with catchy lyrics, sometimes masking surpris-ingly depressing boy-girl themes. the band recently released their third album, (the Lampshades) Are Alright, and will be bringing their dancey brand of melancholy to several shows in Baltimore this fall.

myspace.com/thelampshades or thelampshades.net

aRmida and HER imaginaRy bandSometimes more of a comedic act than a band, Armida and Her Imaginary Band-which is, in fact, imaginary—produces a sound and show unlike anything you’ve seen before. Consisting solely of Armida Lowe on vocals and, at one time or another, the ukulele, electric pump organ, percussion, and kazoo, Ms. Lowe and her non-existent band bring a soulful, bluesy sound to the district’s bars and lounges. Her sometimes shocking lyrics and undoubtedly different sound won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but there is no denying Armida’s humorous angle or old-timey mystique.

myspace.com/armidaandherimaginaryband

tHE loCal sCRatCHBy Jenny poISt > SenIor > ArCHIteCture > unIverSIty oF MAryLAnd, CoLLege pArk

For us, it was always about the music. It was a unique college experience. Every weekend, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on tour, anywhere in a six-hour radius playing shows. I like to think it was closer to an athlete, to that experience.

CM: Now that you’ve started to get more com-mercial success, like with “Love and Memories,” how does that feel?

Jd: It’s funny because the music business is kind of like baseball: it’s all about the stats. It’s about a product you can sell. If you understand that and you play within those rules, you can play music you feel strongly about and manipulate the sys-tem to your advantage….and I challenge anyone to write a pop song. It’s not easy. It’s another side of your craft.

And judging by their new record, it’s a craft they’ve learned well. The album’s first single, “Shattered,” is already making the rounds, and DePizzo calls All Sides’ second track, “This Town,” the band’s “sure opener for the next ten years.”

With their recent chart successes, O.A.R. isn’t going anywhere, which should be music to the ears of Bob Marley-worshipping, music-obsessed, class-aphobic, college students everywhere.

For an exclusive video of o.a.R. in concert, go to collegemagazine.com


“People say O.A.R.’s a ‘frat band.’ I hate that term. I really do.”

Vote for your favorite band at collegemagazine.com.


Each year, thousands of American students trade their campus life for the exciting chance to study abroad. We should not forget, however, that many students do not have this opportunity. Some can’t afford the high costs of traveling overseas. Others are denied because of their grades. Some—not me, of course—are deemed a flight risk by a high-and-mighty judge on a power trip who thought it was fair to steal your passport just because of a trumped-up vehicular manslaughter charge.

Despite this hurdle, I was still able to re-create an authentic study abroad experience by traversing the beautiful American Midwest. I simulated a thrilling journey through Europe with nothing but ingenuity, attitude, and a Ziploc bag full of ground-up NoDoz to exchange with truckers for rides.

My first step was to say “goodbye” to my friends here. I told them that I’d see them again in no time—I knew deep down that upon returning, these pathetic homebodies would be ignorant to the many pleasures of world travel. No doubt they spent the ensuing months looking longingly at the front door like a dog waiting for his master to come home. This master, however, would have Hofbräuhaus mugs instead of dog treats, and Facebook photos of mimes instead of a pat on the head.

Americans are considered the great Satan where I was pretending to go, so I stitched a Canadian flag to my backpack and spoke slowly and politely about the CN Tower and Martin Short. This way, nobody treated me rudely as I strolled along the romantic canals of Toledo, Ohio.

When dining, it was important to remember that gratuity is the single greatest danger to Europe’s fragile economy. When noshing at any one of Wisconsin’s fine road stops, I avoided tipping at all costs. I would leave a polite “merci,” and my fake Canadian email address so I could keep in touch with the fascinating waiter who told me all about last night’s American Idol results show and where the nearest homeless shelter is.

Why a homeless shelter, you ask? Whether in South Bend, Indiana, or Peoria, Illinois, I needed somewhere to sleep. Homeless shelters are the closest things we have in America to hostels, so take advantage. By sleeping in a room with twenty disgusting vagrants, I came to understand the communal spirit of Europe. I’ll never forget exchanging traveling stories with Stab-Wound Jerry, or sharing a malt liquor with Meningitis Tony.

As hard as it was to pry myself away from my new friends, I really needed to enjoy the personal freedoms one gets to enjoy while overseas. The place I had in

mind was Amsterdam. To recreate the ease and convenience of the Red Light District’s brothels, I walked by storefronts and thought terrible thoughts about the mannequins.

Let’s face it; I would have been eating McDonalds and getting rejected by women in Paris or Rome, so why not in Indianapolis? The joy of studying abroad isn’t in the unique cultural immersion or living in a city where men openly wear

Capri pants—it’s in holding it over your friends’ heads upon returning. When I got back I ordered a Guinness and complained that it tasted better in Dublin, I called Prague “Praha.” And boy, were my friends impressed!

By nICk greene > SenIor > engLISH > george WASHIngton unIverSIty

HoW To PLAY:Each row, column and set of 3-by-3 boxes must contain the numbers 1 through 9 without repetition. Check your answers at collegemagazine.com.

studEnt ColumnBonjour from Tulsa! My Journey Abroad.

“I simulated a thrilling journey

through Europe with nothing but

ingenuity, attitude, and a Ziploc

bag full of ground-up NoDoz...”

Batmanhad Robin

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dc edition fall 2008 amber oliva’s exotic skip study … · abroad in the united states ......

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